17 Sharing The Madness With a Friend

The rest of that day went well for Pippin, but lads don't usually go on about weddings like lasses do, and the next day and the day after that he began to have some problems. He was bored and he hardly saw Diamond. He grew fidgety and out-of-sorts.

Finally, their third morning at Great Smials, there was a change in his demeanor. He arrived at the breakfast table with his smile once again lighting his face.

"I'm going to Crickhollow. I'm leaving right after I finish eating."

Diamond looked surprised. "Peregrin, that's hardly fair, you've given me no time to pack!"

Pippin kissed her forehead. "You missed what I said, Diamond. I said I'm going to Crickhollow, not we're going. I'm going alone."

Diamond went from surprised to shocked. "But Peregrin. What about me?" She pouted a bit.

"I've hardly seen you for two days as it is. You are busy with my Mum and my Sisters planning the most wonderful wedding the Shire has ever seen. You haven't needed any advice from me thus far, I thought you won't miss me for a few days." Pippin held her hands in his. "I can't tell Merry our news in a letter, Diamond, I've got to go and tell him in person and you need to be here."

Diamond smiled at him and gave him a kiss. "I should have thought that you are going to tell Merry. I'll be fine here and busy too, you're right about that! Eat and get going, I'm sure you're anxious to get there."

"I knew you would understand." Pippin kissed Diamond, swallowed his food whole, kissed Diamond again and rushed out to be on his way for the two day trip to Crickhollow.

Merry was just about ready to dish up his dinner and sit down to eat while reading a book on herbs, when the kitchen door banged open. A cold wind and Pippin both swept into the cozy room.

"Pippin!" Merry shouted. "Shut the door!"

With some effort needed to push against the wind the door was shut and a shivering Pippin slumped against it.
“I-i-it’s cold!” Pippin's teeth were chattering and his blue lips slurred the words together. "F-fire! T-t-t-t-tea!" He said as he headed unsteadily toward the large open hearth fireplace on feet that hurt with the cold. He held his hands out to the blaze and Merry noticed they were trembling and the nails were blue.

"Goodness Pip, haven't you ever heard of wearing gloves or mittens? Your hands are blue!" Merry grabbed the nearest hand and started to rub it.

"Ow!" Yelped Pippin and Merry stopped rubbing his hand and just held it instead. "D-d-did have g- gloves. G-got wet." Pippin managed to say.

It was then that Merry noticed that Pippin was wet. His cloak seemed to have kept most of him from being soaked through, though none of him was dry. His trousers, along with the bare legs and feet below them, were dripping and his hair was plastered to his head. Little rivulets ran down his face and neck. Pippin noticed Merry looking at his head and answered Merry's question before he could ask it.

"C-couldn't k-k-keep m-my hood up. W-w-windy."

Merry shook his head at his cousin. "Well, this is the warmest room in the house, so you may as well stay in here. Can you use your fingers at all?" Pippin nodded. "Alright then, out of those wet clothes while I fetch you dry ones." Pippin nodded again and started trying to unhook his cloak.

Merry was soon back with some thick fluffy towels, a flannel nightshirt and a wool robe.

Pippin hadn't made much progress. His fingers were still too cold and stiff, it hurt to use them. He had pulled the cloak over his head and the same with his tabard. But he hadn't been able to budge his mail shirt. His braces were under the mail, so his wet trousers were still on him as well. Pippin looked forlorn and frustrated, his hair sticking out wildly from pulling things off over his head. Merry helped his cousin finish undressing. Pippin managed to get into the night shirt and robe while Merry put a clothesline across the room then hung the wet garments on it. When he finished he turned to Pippin who had pulled a chair up to the fireplace and was rubbing at his head with a towel.

"Here, let me do that while you get those hands near the fire again." Merry said as he took the towel from Pippin and started to vigorously rub Pippin's wet curls. He could feel that Pippin was still shivering. He draped the towel over a chair, grabbed another and started drying the hair on Pippin's feet. When he was satisfied they were as dry as he could get them he put a dry towel on the hearth, setting Pippin's feet on the towel. "Let's get some tea into you."

Merry hung the towel from drying Pippin's feet over another chair before pouring a mug of tea for Pippin. He laid a small kitchen towel over his cousin's left hand so he could use his hand to steady the mug without hurting his cold skin. Pippin would drink a bit then Merry would rub at his hair; another drink, more rubbing and so on until the tea was gone and the hair nearly dry. Finally, Pippin had quit shivering.

"Thank you Merry." Pippin was able to say without his teeth chattering.

"You're welcome, dear cousin. But I'm not done with you. Let's get you at the table and get some of the stew I made for dinner into you. I'll make you some Horehound and Rosehips tea. May as well start dosing you before I can hear you breathing from across the room."

"Oh Merry, must you?" Pippin moaned. He hated how easily he could become sick and he hated being fussed over about it. "I'll be fine, really. You know I've done better since the Journey. I've only been sick a few times and none of them badly." Pippin could whine quite well when he wanted to.

"And I've been dosing you at the very first sign of trouble ever since we've been back. Remember with whom you are sharing a home!” Merry’s tone was stern but he gave Pippin a wink before he went into the cellar to get the herbs he needed. Pippin pulled the table closer to the fireplace and then pulled his chair up to the table with his back to the fire. There was no use in arguing with Merry when it came to his health, Pippin realized. Merry put the small pouch of herbs into a teapot to steep and set a bowl of stew , a spoon and a plate of thick sliced bread in front of his cousin. Pippin didn't start to eat though, until Merry sat down and was also ready to eat.

They ate in silence for awhile. Merry had a mind full of questions and Pippin was fairly bursting with news, yet it just seemed right to take the meal in a comfortable quiet. They each had a second bowl of stew and Pippin had drunk two mugs of the herb tea, as instructed, when he decided he could hold his news no longer.

"I . . ."

"What . . ."

They both started to talk at the same time.

"Go ahead, Pippin." Merry said. "You went through all that nasty weather to get here, so I assume there is either something going on or you've decided to come home at last."

That caught Pippin off guard. He hadn't thought that Merry might think he was coming back, back to live at Crickhollow with him. Suddenly Pippin's good news didn't seem as good, at least not good from Merry's point of view.

"Well, actually, I do have . . . uh . . . some news. I . . . uh . . . you see I, that is . . ." Pippin stopped and just sat there with his mouth open as though he was going to continue, but he didn't. He got up, picked up his bowl and went to the pot of stew that still hung not far off the fire. "Want more stew, Merry? I'll get it for you. Quite good this, one of your better efforts!" He said without once looking at Merry.

"You aren't coming back, are you." Merry's voice was calm and gave no indication of his feelings.

Pippin stopped ladling stew into his bowl. He stood there with the ladle in his hand, his back to his cousin. He shook his head no.

"Unless it is because you are marrying Diamond, you better have a very good reason, Pippin."

Pippin turned around and slowly brought his gaze to meet Merry's. Merry's expression was hard to read and Pippin suddenly felt chilled again. He sat down hard, almost sloshing stew onto the table.

"And if I am getting married to Diamond?" Pippin asked as he lowered his eyes and poked his spoon around in his bowl.

"Then, next to you and Diamond, I'll be the happiest hobbit in the Shire."

Pippin's head snapped up, eyes and mouth wide. "Happiest hobbit? You aren't hurt or upset or . . . or anything?" He managed to say.

Merry smiled and chuckled. "That's it, isn't it? You're getting married."

Pippin nodded, still a bit unsure of his older cousin's reactions.

Merry quickly got up and came around the table, got down on his knees and hugged Pippin so hard that the breath rushed out of his lungs. Merry let go with one arm long enough to rumple Pippin's now dry locks and then hugged him tightly again.

"Fool of a Took!" He said laughingly. "What, did you think I would be angry?"

"Well, I-I . . ." Pippin stammered

"Well you what? After all our time together do you know me so poorly, Pippin?" Merry had pulled away and was looking into Pippin's wide green eyes. "That hurts me, Pippin. That you suddenly seem to not know me. If I were getting married, would you be hurt or angry?" Merry asked.

Pippin hung his head. "I wouldn't want to be alone." He muttered.

Sudden understanding came to Merry and he hugged his dear younger cousin again and rubbed the golden brown curls on the back of his head. Sentimental tears came to his indigo eyes and ran down his cheeks.

"Oh Pip! That's thoughtful of you. But really, I want you to grow up and be happy. Have a little Pippin or two and," Merry pulled back and looked into Pippin's teary eyes, "and be my happy little cousin. Will you be happy with Diamond?"

"Yes, I love her so much Merry. She's the lass I was talking about, the one like Sam's Rosie." Pippin smiled a teary smile. He thought again how he cried a bit too easily, but he was tired from his ride in the storm and relieved that his news hadn’t hurt Merry. Pippin pulled Merry back into a hug and sighed. Sometimes tears just seemed appropriate.

"And are you going to be living at Great Smials then?" Merry asked as he got to his feet. His knees were starting to hurt from the tile floor. He went and picked up his bowl, helped himself to some more stew then sat back down.

"No." Pippin said a bit sharply, then continued more calmly. "No. I've heard that oft times doesn't work well. Having the current and the future Thain there at the same time. I get along well with my Father and I don't want to put a strain on our relationship." He ate a spoonful of stew and some bread, chewed and swallowed before continuing. "I want to be on my own for a bit longer. Like he and my Mum did living at our house in Whitwell."

"You'll be at Whitwell then?" Merry asked.

"Well, we haven't really talked about it. And we really need to. I had thought about it, then rather lost it with everything else going on, but with the wedding coming so soon we really do need to have someplace to live all set and ready, don't we?"

"With the wedding so soon?" Merry gave Pippin an odd look. "How soon?" Merry waved his hand. "No!" He said. "No, don't tell me. Yule. It's First Yule isn't it?"

Pippin once again found himself staring speechless and open mouthed at Merry. He blinked a few times, closed his mouth and then in an amazed whisper asked; "How did you know?"

Merry laughed so hard he started to choke a bit and couldn't respond until he had sipped some tea and settled down.

"When else! I know you dear cousin. It had to be something no hobbit we know of had ever done. And you probably asked for her hand standing in The Water up to your knees ." Merry stopped and thought for a moment. "No. It is too cold this time of year for standing in The Water." He thought a bit more. "I know, hanging by your knees from the mallorn tree in Party Field!"

Pippin flinched and blushed, shook his head no then let it fall onto his arms on the table.

"No to that then, but I'm close aren't I?" Merry said with satisfaction.

"Up in the tree." Pippin said without lifting his head.

Merry laughed till he could barely breathe, slapping the table and saying, "Up in the tree!" over and over until he had no breath left to speak.